Opinion
Better to be 1st Among the Gauls Than 2nd Among the Romans
By Ryan Elcock
Between 58 to 51 BC, as he was successfully bringing the Gauls under the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar is said to have remarked to a traveling companion that it was, indeed, ‘better to be first among the Gauls than second among the Romans.’ Just as there are interpretations galore to the Roman Emperor’s quixotic statement, the dictum may have been about the ego; that unquenchable penchant for breaking new ground, where one never sells their soul for praise – the sojourn toward outlier and exemplar status. Caesar himself would have much preferred to be a Gallic leader in the deplorable poverty he witnessed than deputize the Emperor in the heart of Rome’s splendor.
Taking this into account, I have to ask: Why do we, as a people, feel the need for validation? I pose this question because despite being on a rising trajectory, many Africans and Caribbean people in their own countries and even those in the Diaspora feel the need to alter their attitudes from their own proud ways to the ‘house slave’ mentality just so they can benefit from the success of the first world than actually work towards fostering home grown success!
If you think me simply vituperative, I have examples galore: For starters, the Black Community in America has been up in arms about the slight from the mainstream media. Blacks complain that the media and ad agencies do not target them or seem to want their purchasing power. This article speaks to the evil that advertisers can do to the black zeitgeist.
Although they are projected to transmogrify into a US$1.1 trillion market by 2015, Blacks apparently do not see the opportunity in using their purchasing power to empower black media outlets and black ad agencies that make their issues and needs a top priority. Instead, they bellyache about the little love shown them by mainstream media outlets. Basically, Blacks await validation from those who neither share their issues nor experience.
It is simply mindboggling how we, as a black race, continue to throw our hard earned dollars at institutions in the hope that they’ll welcome us like the prodigal son all these years of the ignored minority dollar later!
After the Civil Rights Era and Jim Crow before it, we are still the lackadaisical minority! Even the Latinos and Asians have, superficially, eked out their own paths from almost nothing. Unlike these other minorities, Blacks still waste their effective demand like suckers who cannot make decisions on where to throw their dollars? Surely, if Caesar could prefer to be a black leader than a white deputy, then we can choose to emulate the overall philosophy of breaking our own ground!
Alas, we are, perhaps, still colonized in both mind and spirit. Despite the great things he has done with his newfangled group of companies, we celebrated when Bob Johnson became America’s first billionaire. But do you know how he reached this shady zenith? The man sold his media company Black Entertainment Television – BET – to Viacom. And yes, like a capitalist, the man took his payout and has grown richer. However, do you know what we lost? We lost a medium, which, in itself, is invaluable and irreplaceable! That Black company was valued in the billions and bought out by the mainstream! But where the heck is BET now?
